Waterloo Warriors aim to make history at U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship
The University of Waterloo women’s hockey team are provincial champions for the very first time.
The Warriors clinched the OUA title in a 2-1 overtime win over the host University of Toronto on Saturday. The Varsity Blues were exiting the zone when Carly Orth stripped Juliette Blais-Savoie of the puck at the blue line.
“That kind of allowed me to step in, lift her stick, and grab it,” Orth described to CTV News.
Waterloo went on a 2-on-1, when Orth threw a cross-crease pass to Paige Rynne, who buried the game-winner.
“I saw Paige open right there so I kind of set it across the crease,” Rynne said. “I just was able to pop it in.”
The win gave the Warriors their first McCaw Cup in the program’s 22-year history and fans, wearing their yellow jerseys, hopped over the boards of Varsity Arena to celebrate.
“At first I just thought it was another goal,” Orth said. “Our team was getting off the bench and I’m like: ‘Oh my gosh, our team just won the whole thing.’”
The celebration was short-lived as the Waterloo Warriors sets their sights on a national title. The team hopped a plane for Saskatoon on Monday to compete in their first-ever U SPORTS Women’s Hockey Championship.
“First time here, everything’s new,” head coach Shaun Reagan said during a Wednesday morning video call. “It’s exciting, but we’re dialed in. We feel we can win the championship.”
The University of Waterloo enters the tournament as the 4-seed. The Warriors open the quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Thursday against Nova Scotia’s St. Francis Xavier University.
Complete tournament seeding is as follows:
- Concordia Stingers (RSEQ champions, 25-0 regular season, 4-2 playoffs)
- UBC Thunderbirds (CW champions, 24-4 regular season, 4-2 playoffs)
- UNB Reds (AUS champions: 21-7 regular season, 5-1 playoffs)
- Waterloo Warriors (OUA champions, 18-10 regular season, 5-1 playoffs)
- STFX X-Women (AUS finalists, 21-7regular season, 3-4 playoffs)
- Toronto Varsity Blues (OUA finalists, 19-9 regular season, 4-3 playoffs)
- Montréal Carabins (RSEQ finalists, 13-12 regular season, 3-3 playoffs)
- Saskatchewan Huskies (hosts, 19-9 regular season, 1-2 playoffs)
Waterloo also has a shot at becoming just the fourth team to hold both the OUA and U SPORTS titles in the same year.
With the U SPORTS Women’s Hockey Championship coming to Elmira’s Woolwich Memorial Centre in 2025, the Warriors could return to next years championship as host and the defending champs.
“You have to return the trophy 30 days after winning it and it goes to the host city,” Reagan said. “It would be cool to bring it back and not even have to return it.”
You can follow all of this year’s U Sports Women’s Hockey Championship on the U SPORTS website.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.